No Quarter
by IridiumRing92
Summary: Military AU. Claire Farron is one of the Army of Academia's newest recruits - under the infuriating, manipulative General Caius Ballad. At first Claire is certain he hates her, and insists the feeling is mutual. Then Claire and Caius's paths continue to cross, and Claire is forced to reconsider her feelings. And yet the war threatens to tear them apart. / CaiusxLightning. Language.
1. Taking Names

**Okay. FIRST, to those of you who are currently reading Thorns of a Rose or Role Reversal, I'm sorry this isn't that. But I had to, okay? I had to. X3 Also, I had more medical problems. I wasn't in the best shape last week.  
**

**But thanks for your interest in this one too.**

**Anyway. I don't know why I keep coming back to these military AU sort of things, but you know. Imagine a city that looks a lot like Academia, only with an army. That's where this takes place. **

**I'll write about myself later! For now I'll shut up. :3**

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**Chapter One: Taking Names**

_"You."_

The young soldier gritted her teeth and lifted her eyes to the source of the voice. Naturally, it was her commanding officer. She didn't know what the hell his name was, but she could recognize him ten miles away. He wore a completely black suit of armor that showed almost no skin, save for his hands and face, and he had the longest hair of any man she'd ever met. _Not only that, but it's purple, for God's sake,_ she thought. _And he wears damn headbands. What man in his right mind does that?_

"On your feet," he said, crossing his arms.

Hell, she could attack him right now and he'd never have a chance to get his weapon out. But as far as weapons went, she didn't even have one.

"Yes, sir," she answered and stood up.

"Soldiers," her commanding officer shouted, addressing the other recruits around her, "this is exactly how to earn yourselves punishment during training. However, this one I will let off the hook because it is the first day, you understand? Anyone else will not be getting a free pass.

"And you," he said, turning back to her, "you. What is your name, anyway?"

She cocked her head to one side and glared at him. "Number 384, sir," she answered. "You just called me by that name earlier. Or don't you remember?"

He didn't flinch. "You will be spending ten minutes in solitary tonight for that answer. Now tell me, _what_ is your name?" He bent down so that they stood eye to eye, so that his nose almost brushed against hers. She could feel the cadence of his breath as he snarled, "I should like to hear a real answer this time."

She sucked in a breath and said, "Farron," and he straightened.

"Farron," he repeated. "What, Farron? Do you have a first name?"

"Do you care?" she snapped.

"I'm going to make that fifteen minutes in solitary."

The soldier closed her eyes and clenched her jaw. For a moment she fell silent. Finally she muttered, "Claire."

"Oh? Speak up," he encouraged, half a smirk surfacing on his thin lips.

"My name is Claire," she repeated.

"Soldiers, do you hear that? This is Claire Farron," her commanding officer said. His tone sounded almost gleeful, a fact that she did not let go unnoticed. "She will be spending fifteen minutes in solitary today—the _first day_ of training. I hope none of you wish to follow such an example, but if you do, please, feel free to join her."

Claire ducked her head and muttered a "yes, sir" under her breath. The other recruits said nothing.

"In the meantime," he continued, beginning to pace in front of the lines—_Oh God, _Claire thought, _now he's going to do the damn stuff all officers do, like pace in front of the lines—_"you can call me General Caius Ballad. Or, if that happens to be too hard, just 'General' is fine." He smirked.

No one spoke. The smirk faded away from General Ballad's face. "Answer me!" he demanded.

"Yes, sir," the rest of the soldiers responded dully.

"You will all do ten push-ups, in order to reconcile that lack of response," General Ballad snapped. "Go."

"Yes, sir," the soldiers replied, dropping down to the ground.

Training ended hours later, and the soldiers broke formation to walk over to the cafeteria. Claire scanned the group around her, watching the other soldiers gather together to talk in groups. She didn't have anyone to talk to, not that she minded. The silence felt relieving after the verbal beating they'd taken from General Ballad.

A breathless, dark-skinned recruit jogged up to her, interrupting her thoughts. "Whoo, it's a long run from the back of the group," she said in a heavily accented voice. "Claire, right?" She offered her hand.

Claire looked at it, confused. "What?"

"You're Claire. The General said so, didn't he?" The dark-skinned girl didn't drop her hand. "I just wanted to say congratulations. That was quite a performance."

"Okay…" Claire answered. Hesitantly, she reached out and shook the other girl's hand. "And you are?"

"I'm Fang." The girl grinned. "Oerba Yun Fang."

Claire raised an eyebrow. "That's a mouthful. Where did you get a name like that?"

"My hometown," Fang said. "It's way off in the boonies. Nothing to see out there but dust."

"I wish I had a name like that," Claire remarked. "Then when General freaking Ballad asked me what it was, he wouldn't have been able to pronounce it."

Fang laughed, a high and lilting sound. "I like you, Claire," she decided aloud. "Come on, let's go get something to eat. I'm starving."

She dragged Claire along through the line and cut a path through the crowd to an empty table. Once they'd sat down, she proceeded to glance around the cafeteria, searching the crowd. Claire watched her, confused, but Fang didn't seem to notice. She waved one arm in the air in an attempt to flag one of the other soldiers down.

Claire turned to look at who she was waving to, but the crowd surged around their table, yielding no clear target. Finally a girl with bright pink hair emerged and sat down next to Fang. "Hey! How are you, Fang?" she asked, her voice accented like Fang's, but volumes more cheerful.

"I was about to die from starvation. You?" Fang countered.

"Me too," the pink-haired girl admitted. "Who's this?" she added, gesturing to Claire.

"Oh, that's Claire, my new squad buddy," Fang said easily. "Claire, this is Vanille. She's in training to be a medic."

"Hello!" Vanille chirped. "Nice to meet you."

"Um… you too," Claire replied.

"So, Fang, Claire, how was the first day of training for you?" Vanille asked.

"Oh, I dunno. A little intense. Kind of equivalent to being hit over the head with a ruler, maybe," Fang answered with a smirk. "Claire! What do you think of General Ballad?"

"General Ballad? He's an ass," Lightning said, deadpan.

"But kind of hot." Fang squinted as though she were thinking about it.

"No _way_. Nobody that irritating could be attractive," Claire retorted. "And he has _purple hair_."

"Yeah, he does, but—" Fang caught the looks Claire and Vanille were shooting her, and she backed off, holding her hands up in front of her. "Okay, okay, sorry, I'll shut up. Jeez."

"I don't think I've ever met anyone named Ballad," Vanille remarked.

"I'm pretty sure he's new. Heard he got promoted to his position really early, like his combat skills were insane and they needed him there." Fang shrugged. "Yeah, before now I always thought generals were old."

"He's old enough," Claire snorted.

"He's only, what, twenty-two?" Fang said. "Think of that, Claire. What if it was you? And doesn't it just piss you off that he yells at you like you're a little child when really he's not that much older than you are?"

Claire considered this for a moment. "Okay, I see your point."

Fang sighed, having finished her tirade. "I'm going to eat now. Talking takes up too much energy."

After a minute of silence, Vanille looked up at Claire. "So, where are you from?" she asked. "I'm sure Fang's told you, but we're from a village called Oerba."

Claire shrugged. "She just said you were from a town covered with dust in the middle of nowhere."

"That basically sums it up," Vanille agreed. "So?"

"Um, I'm from Bodhum," Claire answered. "I'm sure you already know where that is…"

"Bodhum!" Fang exclaimed, looking up from her plate. "Like the place where they have all those fireworks?"

Claire nodded.

"Aw, not fair, not fair at all," she said, stretching her arms over her head.

"Life isn't fair, is it, Fang?" A pair of hands clamped around Fang's shoulders, startling her out of her stretch. "What are you complaining about today?"

A boy with silvery hair sat down between Claire and Vanille. He looked like he was about Vanille's age, a little younger than Claire and Fang, but not by much.

"None of your business!" Vanille said, blushing slightly and swatting him on the arm. "Why do you always drop in on our lunch conversations, anyway, Hope?"

"Because it makes you get so flustered, Vanille," Hope answered smoothly. A few seconds later a smile broke across his face. "No, it's because I like talking to you. And you're my classmate, after all."

Claire glanced between the three of them, trying to figure out what was going on. Vanille and the guy who had just appeared, also known as Hope, stared at each other while Fang watched them out of the corner of her eye. Fang broke the silence first. She cleared her throat and said, "So, how about some introductions, Hope?"

"Introductions?" Hope echoed. He turned around and saw Claire sitting behind him, and his eyes glinted with realization. "Oh. Hey, I'm Hope. Estheim. Medic-in-training, like Vanille."

"That's right, we're in the same squad," Vanille chirped.

"I'm Claire," Claire answered. "I'm training with Fang."

"Oh, so you know someone in your group. That's good," Hope answered. "Trust me, it's not fun to get stuck in a squad all by yourself."

_And with General Ballad at its head to boot,_ Claire wanted to add. "Actually, we just met today."

"Really?" Hope asked. "Well, in that case, welcome to the chaos that is this cafeteria table."

"Are there more of you?" Claire joked. "Should I watch my back?"

"Nope, it's just us," Vanille answered.

"You know, Hope," Claire pointed out, "you don't really seem like the military type."

He laughed. "That's what I always thought too. And look at Vanille—she couldn't hurt a fly. That's why she's a medic." Vanille shot him a look, and he grinned. "I started studying to be on the scientist track a while ago. Somehow I ended up here."

"It's not so bad, is it?" Fang commented.

"I'll agree. You soldiers probably have it worse than I do." He shrugged.

"Well, speaking of being soldiers, we're on a schedule," Fang told him. "We've only got a couple hours until curfew, so we should probably head toward our dormitory."

"We should, too," Vanille said. "We'll see you guys tomorrow, okay?"

"Right, see you tomorrow," Fang echoed. The four of them stood up to abandon their cafeteria table. Another group sat down seconds after they left.

Hope and Vanille disappeared into the side of the cafeteria crowd at their backs, and Fang cut a path forward for her and Claire. They walked along one wall of the cafeteria and pushed through the doors to the lobby that connected most of the buildings. The lobby, compared to the cafeteria, looked deserted and sounded almost silent.

"I'm guessing most of our squad is already back at the dormitory," Fang said. "Somebody told me there were first-week games for new squads. They always go down there to play them."

"Should be interesting," Claire said.

Fang circled the lobby until she found the door that led outside. From there, they would be able to cross a longer transportation path to their building. But when the two of them stepped outside and slid the door shut behind them, they found that they were not alone on the transportation path. A figure blocked the path and the way to the dormitory.

His lavender hair gave him away.

"Excuse me for interrupting," General Ballad said, "but I believe I must borrow Claire Farron for just a moment. She has yet to serve her fifteen minutes in solitary, you see."

"I guess I'll see you in a few minutes," Fang muttered.

"That's right. Claire," he continued, one of his gloved hands clamping around her forearm, "you'll need to come with me."

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**I know everybody says it, but reviews are awfully nice. :D**


	2. Solitude

**Wow. It's been over two months since I updated this story... I'm sorry. And I'm sorry that I have to say I'm sorry every time I post a chapter...**

**Anyway, thank you everyone for the reviews and follows! Lollll I love you guys :D Thanks for putting up with my lack of updating.**

**Also, since I listen to music all the time, the song that I listened to obsessively while I wrote the first chapter of this story was "My Blood" by Ellie Goulding.**

**And finally, disclaimer - I don't own anything pertaining to Final Fantasy XIII-2.**

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**Chapter Two: Solitude**

"Let go of me," Claire snapped and jerked away from her commanding officer's grasp.

At first she thought she had escaped, as he made no move to reclaim his hold on her arm, but a second later she found herself pinned against the wall, his face inches away from hers. Again.

"I am your superior," he hissed. "_I _give the orders. _You_ keep quiet."

He released her and stalked off toward the lobby. Claire rolled her eyes behind his back.

General Ballad led her through the lobby and down one of the hallways that split off from it. He looked over his shoulder at her once, but other than that he made no contact with her, no effort to make sure she followed. She wondered if he really trusted her enough not to reclaim the grip he'd had on her arm just moments ago. Or maybe it was only that he trusted she was afraid enough of what he might do if she didn't follow.

The hallway began to look darker and darker as Claire walked down it. In the lobby, the light had been nearly blinding; here, at the end of the hallway, she had to squint if she wanted to see General Ballad's silhouette in front of her. The walls felt closer, as though they had begun to close in around them. The narrow metal door at the very end of this ordeal of a hallway looked half the size of a normal door, and Claire doubted she would even be able to fit through it.

General Ballad unlocked the door and held it open for her. "This is for defying me earlier this morning, during training," he told her. "I might remind you before you go inside that you are never to talk back to an officer. You are to always follow orders. You are a soldier. A trainee, at that. This is your reward for such rash behavior."

She opened her mouth to reply—at least a "yes, sir"—but he put a hand roughly between her shoulder blades and shoved her toward the door. She stumbled into the small, dark space, and he closed the door behind her.

Claire blinked. She waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, but the tiny crawl space lacked even the tiniest sliver of light. She realized that in order to fit through the door, she'd had to duck, and she now stood in a half-crouch, her knees slightly bent. She straightened and immediately hit her head on the ceiling, biting back a cry at the strike of pain. She lowered herself into a sitting position.

The room wasn't even big enough to be a closet, Claire discovered as she felt her way around. Anyone bigger than her would have felt like a sardine. Hell, _she_ felt like a sardine. She couldn't even stretch her arms out to her sides; the cold walls met her hands about a foot away from her face. The walls and floors, made of stone, felt clammy and moist, making her shiver.

She wondered if the commanding officers punished everyone this way, or just General Ballad. Probably just him. She couldn't imagine this being a normal punishment for talking back to an officer, especially for the first time. She felt like these walls had begun to close in on her too, creeping steadily toward her, closing the distance. She should have just gotten off with a slap on the wrist, she reasoned. Not death in this cold stone box.

Claire began to count off the seconds to herself. Not knowing how many minutes had passed before now, she began at one. She let the numbers trail on in her head, erasing the disturbing thoughts she was beginning to have.

She had reached seven minutes when she heard a voice call out, "Time," and saw the dim light seep into the cell as General Ballad opened the door. She squinted, blinked, stared out at him. She half expected him to offer her a hand or something, but instead he just stood outside the door, arms crossed. Claire crawled out of the cell and pushed herself up to her feet. Spending barely fifteen minutes in the room had made her legs stiff; she didn't dare try to imagine how it would feel to be locked inside for an hour, or two, or more.

"How did that feel?" General Ballad asked her. "Does it make you want to speak impolitely to me again?"

She knew what she was supposed to say. "No, sir." But what she really wanted to do was tell him he was an ass and she was going to lock him in that cell herself until he died of claustrophobia.

"Good," he said. "Then, I will escort you back to your dormitory."

Claire bit back a cough. After all that, he was going to play the gentleman. Of course. She managed to keep silent as she followed him back down the dim hallway.

They turned and walked outside in the direction of the dormitories again, but this time General Ballad did not stop her from entering hers. He stopped before the transportation path leading up to the building and said, "Here you are, Claire Farron. Good night."

"Good night," she echoed through her teeth. She hated the way he said her name. He made it sound like an illness, and then he just had to tack on that "Good night" at the end—like they were old friends, or something. It only made her want to punch his smirking face even more.

Claire found Fang waiting for her in the dormitory's common room. Several of the others in their squad had gathered together in the center of the room, and it sounded to Claire like they were playing a game. Fang stood near the doorway, grinning, watching the hallway and the game at the same time. When she noticed Claire, she offered her a small wave.

"There you are, Claire," Fang greeted her. "Hey, we're playing truth or dare. You wanna join?"

"Truth or dare?" Claire echoed. She remembered games of truth or dare from back home. None of those games had ended well.

"Yeah, of course. First week game. We gotta get to know each other somehow, right?" Fang answered.

"Right," Claire muttered. Somehow she didn't think a game of truth or dare was the best way to get to know her squad members. She didn't say so.

"Fang!" someone shouted out from the common room. "In here!"

"Come on," Fang said excitedly, and dragged Claire after her into the next room.

Inside, a group of soldiers sat in a circle. They had pulled several chairs and couches into the shape so that they could face each other, and they had set a lamp in the center so that most of the room, save for their circle, was thrown into darkness. When Claire and Fang entered, their faces, lit by the lamplight, turned toward them, and Claire shrank back toward the door frame, unused to the attention.

"Who's this again?" someone asked.

"This is Claire," Fang reminded them.

"You dumbass, of course it's Claire," a voice said, probably to the person who had asked her name. The rest of the room exploded into chatter, reminding each other of the beating Claire had taken after she'd talked back to General Ballad. To her surprise, most of them sounded pleased, even approving, of her stunt.

"Okay, okay," the guy sitting at the head of the group said. He had brown hair and blue eyes. "Claire. Truth or dare?"

Claire closed her eyes. She hated games like this. Truth might make her sound like a wimp, but the question might be something she'd rather die than answer. And dare would definitely help her reputation, but she had almost no doubt it would be something she didn't want to do. Damned if she did, damned if she didn't.

"Dare," she sighed. A hiss of excitement spread through the room, and everyone turned to face the brown-haired guy.

"Okay…" he said, thinking a minute. "How about this. Go into General Ballad's office and steal his headband."

Claire rolled her eyes. "Do you _want_ me dead?" she asked. A hush fell over the room.

"I'll do it," she clarified. "But he's going to have it out for me when this is over." The chatter started up again, and Claire led the way out of the room.

The brown-haired guy jogged up to her. "Hey, I'm Noel," he said, slowing to a walk to catch his breath. "Do you know the way to General Ballad's office, or do you want a hand, Claire?"

"Well, I'm glad to say I've never been to his office, so I'll let you take the lead," Claire answered.

They walked down the path to the main building and the lobby, and Noel opened the door, allowing them inside. They crossed the lobby and walked up the stairs to the second level, where they emerged into a dark hallway housing several doors on either side. Noel walked until he found the door labeled "Ballad", and there he stopped. The group slowly came to a stop around them.

Noel tapped into the keypad next to the door, entering a few numbers. The screen flashed, and the door slid open. Claire stared at him.

"How did you do that?" she asked.

Noel shrugged a shoulder and grinned. "Oh, I have some experience with breaking into locked rooms."

"Obviously," Claire answered. "You'd think they wouldn't want to draft someone with a criminal record."

"I didn't say I had a _record_," Noel protested. "Maybe the military taught me."

"And maybe they didn't," Claire countered, striding past him into General Ballad's office.

Noel made a sound like he wanted to continue the argument, but he stopped himself, stepping back across the threshold into the hallway.

None of the others followed Claire into General Ballad's office. She felt conspicuous, walking alone in the dark room, and she got so caught up in her self-consciousness that she almost ran straight into his desk.

Which was where he had left his headband.

Claire picked it up, crushing it into her fist, and raced back out the door to rejoin her squad. When she reached them, Noel looked down at her hand. "Did you get it?" he asked, and she opened her palm to show him the purple ribbon.

"Great. Now let's run like hell." He took off down the hallway, and the rest of the group followed, whispering and laughing like little kids.

Claire followed the group back into their dormitory's common room, and as they all took their seats in the circle once again, she held up General Ballad's headband like some sort of capture-the-flag trophy. The rest of the group began to applaud. Claire found herself blushing, and she sat down.

"You know what I'd say? I'd say this is revenge," Fang said, nudging Claire with her elbow.

"Revenge," Claire agreed, staring at the swatch of purple cloth.

"Claire!" Noel called out from the other side of the room. "Since you just completed that dare, it's your turn to ask someone else."

Someone tossed him a bottle and he took a drink before handing it to Claire. She wiped the rim with her thumb, took a sip, and looked around the room. She felt a twinge of embarrassment as she realized that she didn't know anyone's name.

"Fang," she decided with a grin. "Truth or dare?"

After they ended the game for the night and began to head back to their rooms, Claire realized that she still had General Ballad's headband. She looked around for Noel, hoping to ask him what to do with it, but he had already disappeared. Reluctantly, she decided that the best place for it would probably be in her dorm room, at least until she could somehow sneak back into General Ballad's office and return it to him. She wrapped it up in her fist again and shrugged. Her head felt a little fuzzy, and she couldn't bring herself to care much about anything.

"Claire," Fang shouted from the foot of the stairs. "Come on."

With a sigh, Claire began the trek up the stairs to her room, the cloth peeking ever so slightly through her fingers.


	3. Façades

**Oh... I skipped two months again... Oops.**

**Ah, well, once again, thank you all for your reviews; they made me so happy :D I hope even though I haven't been very consistent lately, you still find this story enjoyable.**

**I should write more... The weather's nice... I don't have a ridiculous amount of homework... And I'm not doing anything for Valentine's Day... (Lol, unfortunately this isn't a very appropriate chapter for that occasion...)**

**I'll just warn you that I'm having issues with the next chapter, so it might not be up very soon because of editing. Meh. :P**

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**Chapter Three: Façades**

Claire woke up the next morning with a headache. It pounded through her skull with every pulse of the buzzing noise that had jolted her out of sleep. She sighed and slapped a hand on her alarm clock to stop the offending noise, and the first thing she saw was the purple material of General Ballad's headband. She groaned. Why hadn't she returned that to him last night? There was going to be hell to pay when he discovered that it was missing this morning.

She rolled out of bed, dressed, and trudged down the stairs into the common room. There she found Noel standing next to the empty fireplace. She had to exercise all of her self-control in order not to start a fire right there and throw the headband into it.

"Noel," she began, "I'm just going to apologize right now and get it over with."

Noel frowned. "What? Did we do something we shouldn't have last night?" he asked.

"Sort of," she muttered and then amended, "But probably not in the way you're thinking." She held out the headband.

His eyes widened. "What the hell?" He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his forehead. "That's right. Dammit, that's right… I dared you to steal it."

Claire nodded. "Yeah. And you never dared me to return it."

"Okay, I get it," he said. "Oh man… I think we're really all going to die."

"That's why I came to apologize. And also, I don't know what to do with this. I can't just leave it here. If someone finds it, he'll stick us all in solitary… And I wouldn't put it past him to try to put the entire squad in there at once."

Noel snorted. "As terrible as that is, I don't disagree."

"What do we do?" Claire asked.

"What's going on?" A voice interrupted their conversation, and they both turned around to see Fang walking toward them. "Who died? You two look like you just saw a ghost."

"Um, remember how last night, I dared Claire to go into General Ballad's office and steal his headband?" Noel asked.

Fang squinted as though she were trying to remember. "Yeah, I think so. Maybe."

"Well," Noel said slowly, "she still has it."

A look of realization passed over Fang's face as she took in what Noel was saying, and her eyes widened. "No," she said.

Noel shrugged. "I don't know what else to say."

Claire held up the piece of purple fabric.

"Throw it in the damn incinerator. You can't let him see you with that, especially not after yesterday." Fang shook her head, planting one hand on her hip.

"I'll just say that I found it on the ground somewhere," Claire reasoned. "And that I was planning on giving it back to him."

"Do you think he's gonna buy that lie?" Fang asked. "You're, like, number one on his hit list right now. He'll suspect you no matter what you say."

"Maybe," Claire sighed.

"Just go into the lobby and drop it," Noel suggested.

Claire snorted. "You're coming with me, then," she said. "_And_ you're taking the fall if we get caught."

"What? But I didn't pick up his headband!" he protested.

"You're the one who dared me to do it in the first place," Claire said. She smiled. "Hey, remember? It's the first week. We can consider this one of our 'get-to-know-you' games."

"Ooh," Fang commented. "Nice one, Claire. Sorry, Noel."

"No problem," he muttered, staring down at his boots.

"I need to run to the other side of campus to get Vanille," Fang said. "Good luck getting rid of that. If I see General Ballad, I'll try to distract him."

"Great," Noel and Claire both said unenthusiastically.

"See you later," Claire told her.

She dashed off, leaving Noel and Claire alone in the common room. They stared at the floor, and then at each other, neither of them speaking. Finally Claire held up the purple swatch of fabric.

"Wanna get this off our hands?" she offered.

"Yeah," he sighed.

They began the jog toward the main building. Once inside, they retraced their steps to the lobby. Glancing around to make sure General Ballad was nowhere in sight, Claire let the headband slip from her fingers and continued running.

"What's the fastest way to the training grounds?" she asked Noel over her shoulder.

"Take a right and cut through the cafeteria," Noel said. "Assuming the cafeteria's even open."

"If it's not, remember who's taking the fall," Claire reminded him.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it," Noel answered. "Just go."

Claire breathed a silent sigh of relief when she saw that the cafeteria's doors were, in fact, open. She had her eye on the far doors when her vision was blocked by the sight of a man's broad chest clad in black armor.

"What are you two doing here at this time of day?" a voice demanded.

Claire fought the urge to roll her eyes as she followed the chest up to the neck and the face of the man in front of them. General Ballad. Of course. "We're on our way to training, sir," Noel answered before she could get a word out.

She shot him a look as if to say, _I was going to tell him that his hair looks shitty without its headband,_ but Noel barely bothered to return the glance.

"You know you are not supposed to take this route to training," General Ballad admonished, completely ignoring the fact that they actually were going to training. "You are supposed to take the route around the building."

"He _forgot_," Claire cut in, linking her arm with Noel's and pulling him to the side. "We'll be going now."

General Ballad glared over his shoulder at them as they disappeared out the cafeteria's back door.

After the door slammed shut behind them, Claire collapsed against the wall, and Noel doubled over with his hands on his knees. At first Claire thought he was trying to catch his breath, but after a second she realized he was _laughing._ She stared at him with growing annoyance, finally interrupting, "What the hell is so _funny_?"

"Did you see his face?" Noel gasped. "Oh my God, that was great. We're all going to die in training today."

Claire rolled her eyes and sighed. "Wow. Brilliant, Noel."

"Hey," he said. "Let's get outta here."

"Yeah." Claire sighed and jogged after him.

They stopped at the edge of the training area where they'd worked yesterday. Claire could see Fang standing in her spot in the ranks. Thankfully, General Ballad was nowhere in sight.

"Later, Claire," Noel said and turned to run to his spot. Claire stared reluctantly after him before finally deciding to proceed to her own.

Five minutes later, General Ballad paced in front of the ranks. The soldiers stood at attention while he stared at them. For a minute Claire thought his gaze was fixed on her, and she held her breath until she was sure his eyes had moved.

Finally he spoke. "Soldiers!" he barked, his voice creating a spike of an echo throughout the area. "Your squad has an assignment to carry out."

"The minefield mission," a voice said behind her.

"What was that?" General Ballad snapped. When no one answered, he stopped pacing and faced the lines. "Care to speak up?" he snarled.

"It's the minefield mission," the voice said again. Claire stifled a cringe when she realized that the voice belonged to Fang. Why did her only friends have to be the people General Ballad was going to kill before they would ever get out in the field? "The mission where everyone who isn't gonna make it gets taken out."

A smirk pulled at the edge of General Ballad's mouth, and he laughed. "I suppose that is one way you could put it," he agreed. "The assignment is to make it to an abandoned base on the other side of enemy lines. You will all face this assignment. But it is a fact that not all of you will make it through this assignment."

His eyes met Claire's, and she stared him down. He broke eye contact first.

"The assignment will take place tomorrow—after training."

A few people cried out in protest that there would be training just before an assignment, but General Ballad quickly silenced them with a few withering looks.

"And so without further ado," he said quietly, "we'll begin training. Twenty push-ups, all of you."

When training was over, the trainees broke from their ranks and walked off toward the cafeteria. Claire had spotted Fang and had started to make an attempt to catch up with her when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She froze, spinning slowly around to face General Ballad and his lavender hair.

"Farron," he began.

Claire gritted her teeth. She could see it now: _Farron, I know you stole my headband. Give it back or I'll shoot you myself._ Yeah, right.

"Try not to ruin it for yourself," he said. "I believe you can make it through the assignment."

He released her shoulder from his grip, turned his back, and disappeared.

Claire squinted after him, trying to figure out what had just happened. Had he just complimented her? Or maybe it had been an insult. She wasn't sure.

_I think you can make it._

She turned and jogged back toward the cafeteria. She debated telling Fang about the incident, but seconds later decided against it. Better not to complicate things. And besides, her new squad buddy thought their general was "kind of hot."

Claire got her tray and navigated the cafeteria to find Fang and the others at their table. Vanille and Hope, the two medics-in-training, had already arrived and taken their seats. Claire sat down next to Fang, hoping not to interrupt the conversation.

"Hey, sunshine," Fang said. "You look pleased. What was the holdup?"

"Holdup? I just… uh… took a while getting my food," Claire lied.

"Oh, come _on._ I can see a lie ten miles away, Claire Farron," Fang said, clapping the pink-haired soldier on the shoulder. "Let's hear it. Did General Ballad chew you out, or what?"

"Um, actually—" Claire began.

At that moment, another soldier dropped into the seat next to her, leaning in and adding, "Yeah, did General Ballad chew you out, Claire?"

Claire rolled her eyes. "Are you kidding me," she muttered under her breath.

"Aw, hey, is that the kind of greeting I get? I said I was sorry," Noel said.

"No, you didn't," Fang and Claire said at the same time.

"Oh," Noel said. "Oh. Yeah. Well, I'm saying it now. What happened?"

"Well," Claire began, taking a deep breath. "Actually, he told me not to ruin it for myself because he thinks I can make it through our first assignment."

Fang and Noel's silence even drew the attention of Hope and Vanille, who stared at the three of them from across the table.

"He didn't say that," Noel said finally.

"You made that up," Fang agreed.

"I swear to God, I didn't make it up," Claire said, holding her hands out in front of her.

"He didn't mention the headband?" Fang asked.

"Not once," Claire said.

"That… doesn't make any sense," Fang said slowly.

"Yeah, um, no offense," Noel added, "but I was pretty sure he hated you, Claire."

"None taken," Claire answered. "I thought the same thing."

"So now I guess we gotta face facts," Fang said.

"Meaning…?"

"He actually doesn't hate you," Fang and Noel said in unison.

Claire buried her face in her hands.

"Oh God, that's worse. That's definitely worse," she said.


	4. Trust Fall

**Guys, I'm back. I'm actually back. I've been gone so long that there aren't even any documents left on my account. But... yeah. I really wanted to write CaiusxLightning again.**

**I know I said I didn't have much homework last time, but then that changed hardcore. So...**

**On another note, thanks to i and jollyp for the reviews. Sorry to make you wait. :P**

**Okay, so you'll know what I'm talking about when you see it, but I just want to make one thing clear: I am not shipping Fang and Caius. Not in the least. It's just that... Fang is supposed to be the foil for Claire in this fic. And she's Fang. So she says outrageous things.**

**But anyway. I don't own Square Enix or Final Fantasy. So here you go.**

**:D**

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**Chapter Four: Trust Fall**

Training started before sunrise the next morning. Claire was still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes when she showed up at the area they used for training. She ran past General Ballad on her way in, and their eyes met for a brief moment before she ducked her head and broke eye contact.

She couldn't stop thinking about the assignment, even though she knew it wasn't like her to worry. _Maybe, _she thought, _General Ballad is getting to me._

"This is it," General Ballad said as the squad stood recovering from their twenty laps around the main building. "We are to begin our first assignment in ten minutes. If you are not ready, you will fail. Be prepared." He turned and walked away.

"Why's he gotta have such a nice ass?" Fang muttered under her breath.

"I think you mean 'why's _he_ such an ass,'" Claire returned.

"Oh, God, Claire, get over yourself. _Look_ at the man's ass. It's perfect." Fang gestured to General Ballad as he disappeared around the corner.

"You can't possibly find a man like him _attractive_," Claire answered, rolling her eyes.

Fang laughed. "I've got to have something to do while all this training is going on, don't I?"

Claire rubbed her face with her hands. "That might be the most suggestive thing I've heard all morning."

"Claire Farron!" Fang exclaimed, putting her hands on her hips. "Get your mind out of the gutter. I didn't mean it like that."

"Sure you didn't," Claire answered, raising an eyebrow.

"Hey, Claire, Fang, can I forewarn you?" The two girls looked up from their conversation to see Noel standing off to their side. "If I get shot, no life support, okay?"

Claire and Fang exchanged looks. "I think we should have been the ones forewarning you," Fang said. "Anyway, why not? It's the first assignment. You can't possibly want out already."

"Maybe I didn't want in, in the first place." Noel's expression twisted.

"You don't mean that," Fang said.

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't," he answered. "Anyway, forget I said anything. You two ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," Fang told him.

"Damn ready," Claire muttered under her breath.

"Claire, God, don't look so happy about it," Noel said.

"Whatever."

"Soldiers, you are to line up _now_!" General Ballad's voice broke through their conversation, and the three of them looked at each other in apprehension.

"Good luck to all of us," Fang said.

"Let's try not to end up in Hope and Vanille's unit when it's over," Noel answered.

"Or the ground," Claire said.

"Oh God," Fang said under her breath.

"Don't die, or you won't get to admire Ballad's backside anymore," Claire muttered to Fang as they lined up in front of the gate that led outside the military complex.

"I was gonna say don't die or you won't get to see my radiant face anymore."

"That's always good, but obviously you don't have your priorities in order."

"Shut up, you."

"What did you say, Claire?" Noel asked, trying to overhear.

"I didn't say anything," Claire told him. "Stop talking. General Ballad will hear you and shoot you before we even get out of here."

"Sorry," Noel said, holding up his hands in mock surrender.

They proceeded to leave the complex, marching in rows behind General Ballad. Just before they passed through the gates, they walked through terminals to pick up their weapons. Every soldier in the squad received the same gun: a dark blue, partially transparent rifle with extra cartridges. Claire squeezed hers in her hands, concentrating on the feeling of the trigger under her finger.

"Do not forget," General Ballad said, so quietly that Claire had to strain to hear, "that this assignment is entirely real. They have bullets. They can kill. They can kill _you._ And there are no second chances."

Claire took a deep breath and focused on the path ahead of her. General Ballad called out a command, and they began to march.

"Break formation as soon as you hear the shots," he said.

Claire listened for the shots. She remembered learning about their enemy in class: Pulse's Army. Their war had dragged on for years and years over territory and resources, until the point when the war zone had come right up to the doorstep of the military's training facility. That was the reason they held this training assignment here every year, they'd told the soldiers, because they hoped that some squad would eventually break through Pulse's defenses. None had yet. They were locked in what looked like an eternal stalemate.

Someone fired a shot, and the soldiers exploded outward, running in all directions. Claire ducked behind a stone slab that protruded from the dark and dusty ground. The sky looked gray; everything looked gray, and Claire couldn't see the bullets even as she heard them shooting past her. She propped her gun on the top of the stone slab and looked out.

Some of the soldiers had advanced ahead of her, pointing their weapons at the structure that lay beyond. A few of them had already been knocked down by Pulse's bullets. Someone shouted, "Watch out for mines!" but just as soon as the remark had been made, one of the trainees stepped wrong and went flying. Claire cringed.

She saw Fang running ahead of her, firing at the enemy, and she held her breath, hoping her friend wouldn't go down. She looked down the sights of her weapon and saw the dark structure of a fence looming ahead of her, with guns that poked just above it. Claire fired a few shots but didn't see any change ahead of her.

She turned her gaze from the sights, but Fang was gone, lost in the dark uniforms of soldiers ahead of her. Claire gritted her teeth, kept her weapon out in front of her, and jumped out from behind the stone slab. Immediately, she saw that no other shelter lay directly ahead of her, and she felt paralyzed as she watched the barrel of one of the guns flick toward her. As she expected the impact of a bullet in her armor, in her chest or in her shoulder, a different impact hit her: the impact of a body slamming into her from the side. The force of the blow knocked the wind out of her, and she settled into the dust gasping, looking around for the culprit.

Kneeling in the dirt several feet away was General Ballad, his eyes fixed straight on Claire and her stunned form. Claire opened her mouth to say something, but the words escaped her.

"Watch your step next time," he chided her. He glanced ahead at the wall. The two of them were out of range of the enemy's guns. "Do you need help?" he asked, turning his eyes once again toward her.

Claire felt the sudden pressure of his gaze, the weight of his question, and she responded, "No." The word passed her lips so quickly she wasn't sure whether she had even spoken it.

Caius gave a sharp nod of his head and disappeared into the fray. Claire swallowed hard. His absence felt as strong as his presence, and she resented it. She wanted to forget he had even been there.

But she realized, after some hesitation, that she had wanted to say yes.

But what kind of test had he meant to pose to her by that question? Had she said yes, he might have taken her for a coward. But because she'd said no, he likely thought she was ungrateful.

Either way, for that split second, she'd wanted his help.

Cursing under her breath, she dove straight back onto the battlefield, charging toward the enemy's wall. She managed to conceal herself behind the next fragment of stone wall buried in the dust, and when she looked across the field she realized she had become the closest to the wall of machine guns. Cautiously, she peered over the top of the stone fragment, squinting ahead at the enemy's wall. Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw the steady motion of the guns as they fixed their sights on their targets. They were unmanned. Turrets. Their squad was shooting at nothing.

"Fall back!" Claire screamed. "There's no one there! Fall back!"

Some of the other soldiers lowered their weapons, looking confused. Claire repeated her order, and slowly, the other members of her squad began to retreat. She saw no sign of General Ballad, and she didn't care. Part of her hoped he was lying somewhere with a bullet in his chest.

Claire turned her back and sprinted back toward the military complex. When she reached the main gate, she saw that the rest of her squad had already crowded around it and begun to whisper to each other. Fang nudged Claire with her elbow, and Claire looked up to see that General Ballad stood at the front of the group. He stared intently at her, and she averted her eyes.

"He's got it out for you," Fang said.

"I guess that means you can have him all to yourself," Claire muttered.

"Shhh," Fang hushed her.

"This concludes your first assignment," General Ballad said, his voice flat and his eyes searching the soldiers before him. "If you look around, you will see that we have already lost several members of the squad."

Some of the soldiers glanced around them, shouting out names of trainees who had been lost to battle. General Ballad silenced them as soon as they spoke.

"You will learn that loss is a regular part of battle," he told them. "And that making an ordeal out of it is not in your best interest, nor your fellow soldiers'."

The squad fell silent. General Ballad fixed his gaze on them for a long moment before he finally cast his hand toward the military complex's main building. They shuffled forward, breaking ranks, and moved down the road. General Ballad watched them pass, waiting until Claire passed him to put out his hand and clamp it around her shoulder.

"Good luck," Fang whispered and Claire glared at her.

She turned to face General Ballad. "What is it, sir?" she asked.

"Your observation and command were uncalled for on this battlefield," he pointed out, his eyes drilling hard into her. She held her breath. "But on a real assignment, that kind of information would rather be imperative."

"Oh?" Claire asked. "Thank you, sir."

"Yes," General Ballad said. "Claire, I would like to extend an invitation to you."

"An… invitation?" Claire asked hesitantly, studying his expression. His face gave away no clues.

"Walk with me for a few minutes," General Ballad told her. "It will not take long."

Claire flushed. Somehow she couldn't imagine walking calmly next to the same General who had insulted her and thrown her in solitary—the same General who commanded her squad and told them to do push-ups.

"With all due respect, sir," she said, the phrase sounding strange in her mouth, "I don't think I'm allowed to do that."

He laughed. "Do you truly think anyone will know?" He fixed his eyes on her face again, and the intent look he got in them when he did so made her blush. "Have you looked in the mirror lately, Claire? You hardly even look young enough to be a trainee soldier."

"Oh," Claire answered, her blush deepening.

He put one hand on his hip and smiled easily, awaiting her answer. Claire felt all the more awkward. She couldn't possibly agree to it, could she? What would Fang think?

"Well… okay." The word slipped out of her mouth unbidden, but Claire couldn't take it back. General Ballad nodded once.

"In that case," he said, "follow me."

Claire blinked, watching his black-clothed frame turn and retreat from where she stood. She took a deep breath and followed him down the path, wondering what exactly she had gotten herself into this time.


	5. Second Impressions

**Well, this is a change from my usual breaks between updates. Lol. I got done with school a few days ago, so now I'm writing (and playing video games) 24/7. Six hours into my third playthrough of XIII and I'm not tired of it yet.**

**Anyway, i and jollyp, your reviews for the last chapter pretty much made my day, since the notification emails for them showed up in my inbox literally within a few minutes of each other.**

**i - I'm glad that last chapter wasn't too confusing, haha. And wow... the fact that you actually took the time to read the other stories on my profile... I'm impressed, and thank you. :D**

**I realized when I uploaded this chapter that it's unfortunately one of the shorter ones, so apologies. I'll try to get the next one out sooner. :D**

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**Chapter Five: Second Impressions**

General Ballad took Claire down another path beside the military complex. It led to a cluster of buildings that she had never seen before. They walked past the low front door of one such building, nearing its atmosphere of heavy fog and dim lights. A group of soldiers standing near the door called out to General Ballad. They stepped close enough that one of them was able to hand him a drink. They shouted for him to stay and join them, but he merely lifted a hand in farewell and pressed closer to Claire, leading her away.

The seconds that passed after they got clear of the close atmosphere felt uncomfortable to Claire, and she moved away from General Ballad, so that his hand no longer brushed hers. He glanced at her and offered her the bottle he now held in his opposite hand. She shook her head.

An amused look crossed his face. "Have you even had a drink before?"

"Yeah. I used to do it all the time, back home." Claire clapped her hand over her mouth as she realized what she had just let slip. She hadn't actually been able to drink back home.

General Ballad just smiled. "I know how that is."

Claire clenched her fists at her sides. She watched him out of the corner of her eye until he turned his gaze toward her again.

"Claire." His lips were turned up in what might have been a smile. "I would not reveal such information to anyone. Relax."

She nodded and took a deep breath. "Yes, sir."

General Ballad sipped from the bottle and shook his head. "You may call me Caius."

"Caius?" she echoed in disbelief.

"You do remember me telling you that was my first name in training, do you not?" he asked with a smirk, and fell silent.

Claire stared at her boots. Her thoughts had traveled back to the assignment not so long earlier, when she'd looked down the barrel of one of Eden's guns and thought it was her last look at anything. That was just before _he_ had pushed her out of the way. And asked her if she needed help.

All of this felt beyond her understanding.

"Sir," she began, "why did you save me during that assignment?"

"Save you?" he asked, stopping. One of the facility's dim street lamps shone over his head, throwing new shadows across the planes of his face. "What do you mean?"

"Please don't," Claire snapped. "I know you know what I'm talking about. And I want to know why."

"Because," he said and stared at the path.

Claire resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Instead she stared at him, waiting for him to continue.

"I believe you are a capable soldier," he admitted finally. "I believe you have the potential to rise from your current rank and become something much greater."

Claire recalled the first day of training, when he had called her out, when he had thrown her in solitary. "W-what did you think of me then," she began, "on the first day of training?"

He looked up thoughtfully. "I do not know. Perhaps that you were brave. Too brave. Or that you were—" He stopped.

"Too brave?" Claire asked.

"Brave enough to stand up to an authority you had only just encountered," he said. "To a General, that is a most annoying quality in a soldier. But in battle against another unit, when it is not your own General's authority that you question, it is a different story. It could free you. Or it could kill you. It depends how you use it."

"So you try to crush it while you can," Claire paraphrased thoughtfully. "That's an interesting way of going about it."

"Not necessarily," Caius said. "The problem comes when rebellious soldiers pick fights with their own Generals too often. Other than that, we rather prefer to leave them alone."

Claire rounded on him. "Is that why you brought me here?" she demanded. "To make sure I don't question your authority again?"

Caius laughed. "It's just as well you're too smart," he murmured, one hand stretching out to brush the side of her jaw. Just as soon as he had reached out, he pulled his hand back, leaving Claire no time to even process the idea of slapping his hand away. He stood up. "Come. I will accompany you back to your dormitory."

Claire's breath caught at the idea of walking back to her dormitory with their commanding officer. "Sir, there's no need," she choked out. "I can get there on my own."

"Please," he said, "allow me."

"Sir, that's really not—" she began, but he reached out again, offering his hand. Slowly, she reached out and took it, and he pulled her out of the glare of the street lamp, leading her away from it slowly.

Her memory took the opportunity to remind her of the conversation she'd had just days ago with Fang and Noel. _He actually doesn't hate you._ Claire swallowed hard. A strange feeling stirred somewhere inside her. Was she even allowed to be this close to a man she was forced to call General? She held her breath in an attempt to keep as still as she could as his hand slid down to her lower back, the gentle pressure of it propelling her forward and through the cool darkness of the late night.

Claire wanted to ask him why he insisted on keeping his hands on her as they left the close, foggy back streets and entered a more familiar area of the facility. She didn't dare. Her mind wandered as she walked, again taking her back to her conversations with Fang. _He's only, what, twenty-two? … He's kind of hot. … Oh God, Claire, get over yourself._

The pressure of Caius's hand vanished from her back, and Claire glanced over at him. Before she could stop it, a question burst forth to her lips: "So how did you get to be an officer?"

A rueful smile pulled at his lips. "That is an interesting story," he muttered. "In the beginning I did what you did—I impressed my commanding officer during one of my assignments."

He paused for a moment, staring straight ahead as they walked. Claire noticed that he had his hands in his pockets, an action that struck her as distinctly _not_ superior. In fact, it looked kind of normal. For a split second she saw a man who needed to get something off his chest, not a commanding officer, not even a soldier.

"On a later assignment I was ambushed by one of the opposing squad's soldiers, and just before he cleaved me in two with his sword, my commanding officer jumped in front of me," Caius said. "The other soldier's sword sliced through only air. Mine went through flesh."

Claire's hand flew to her mouth. "No—you don't mean you—" she stammered.

He nodded. "My sword impaled him, and he fell in front of me, dead when he hit the ground. I never spoke to him again."

"Caius…" she whispered in disbelief.

He turned and looked at her, and she saw such an expression of pain, of regret and concern, in his eyes that she almost didn't recognize him. His countenance contained no trace of the General Ballad she knew from her first days in training.

"I killed him," Caius said aloud, as though realizing it for the first time. "The other officers were reluctant to give me his position, but they realized they had no other choice. They trained me in a matter of weeks, and I took over as General. I have led your squad for only a few years."

Claire stared into the darkness at the road that led to the main building.

"I'm sorry," she blurted out.

He laughed. "Apologies are not necessary, Claire."

"I know." She stared at her boots. "I had to."

Caius stopped walking and turned to face her. "We are in the military, Claire. Condolences mean nothing. Apologies are obsolete. People cannot be brought back from the dead. You know this. It happens all the time."

They both fell silent. Claire glanced up at the lights that emanated from her dormitory in the distance. She wondered if Fang and the others had watched her disappear with Caius—with _General Ballad,_ she reminded herself.

"I should… probably go," she told him. "I think I can make it from here."

"No," he said. "I will go with you until the door. That way your classmates will understand where you've been."

Claire looked at him sideways. "You want them to know where we've been?"

"You know what I mean," he said. "Would you rather have them thinking you've been wandering around in the dark by yourself, after a battle such as the one we fought today?"

"I guess not," she muttered.

"Then come," he told her and began walking the path toward her dormitory again.

They walked up to the front doors of the dormitory together without saying another word. Caius stopped there and, reaching for the handle of the door, he leaned closer to her. "By the way," he murmured, "Noel may know how to disable electronic door locks, but he apparently has no knowledge of security cameras."

Claire froze. "You mean," she began, "you mean you saw… him… in your office?"

"You as well," he answered. "I do not appreciate having my possessions stolen by trainee soldiers. I should lock you in solitary for another fifteen minutes for that, but I believe you have already learned your lesson." He swung the door open and gestured for her to step inside. "This is as far as I go. Good night, Claire."

"Um… Good night, Caius," she echoed. "I mean—General Ballad."

"My offer still stands," he said. "I don't mind when other people use my first name once in a while. I would not want it to atrophy." He turned his back on her and walked away.

Claire stood in the doorway staring at him for a few minutes, forgetting the dormitory and its inhabitants at her back, until she heard voices behind her and realized that General Caius Ballad had vanished completely into the darkness.


	6. My Eyes

**Okay... I'm back.**

**Two days ago I had several hours to do nothing but sit in front of my computer and write. It was beautiful. I kind of wish I could do it every day, but I think then I'd turn into a hermit and never come out of my room. (Maybe that wouldn't be a bad thing, lol.)**

**So... Thank you so much for the reviews everyone! I was really surprised actually... haha.**

**jollyp - Actually, it was more like a week since I'd posted the previous chapter, but yeah, it was two days after you reviewed. xD And thanks!**

**Zaviire - I appreciate the feedback! Thank you! :)**

**i - Wow. You practically wrote me a chapter yourself. Thank you. :D :D :D Actually, because of your review to the last chapter, I went back and did some revisions, so now I have at least three more chapters than I initially planned on having. (I might add more too.)**

**These two-thousand-word-chapters were kind of hard for me when I started. Not going to lie. I was used to writing chapters that were even shorter than these, so committing to at least 2K per chapter was a little bit of a stretch. But my most recent chapters are way over that mark, and I'm working on making the story longer as a whole. So yeah.**

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**Chapter Six: My Eyes**

"Where've you been all night, Claire?" Fang demanded, ambushing the pink-haired soldier from behind and affectionately ruffling her hair. "We were waiting for you to come back so that you could join our game of truth or dare."

"There are soldiers out there dead, and you're playing truth or dare?" Claire echoed with a sigh.

"Well, yeah. _We're _still alive, right?" Fang said. "Seriously, though. Where did you go off to? I started to worry you might have been among the casualties."

"Um, actually," Claire began, "General Ballad caught me after the battle. He wanted to talk to me about some things."

"Some things! Like what?" Fang exclaimed.

"Well, first of all, I was the one who ordered the retreat, remember?" Claire said. "He said I shouldn't have done that since it was a training assignment."

"That's a load of bullshit," Fang said. "You were right, there was nobody there. He was letting us run headfirst toward a bunch of machines that wouldn't stop shooting no matter what we did. He was letting our classmates go down!"

Claire nodded. "We got out, and that's all that matters, right?" she said. "Anyway, he, um… He also wanted to talk to me about the headband."

"Oh, _God,_" Fang replied, covering her face with her hands. "It's been days since that round of truth or dare. He can't possibly still care about that!"

"He said that he knows Noel can hack through the passwords on the door, but he forgot about the security cameras. Or something like that. Anyway, he threatened to throw us in solitary again." Claire pressed her lips together.

"No," Fang said.

"That's what he said."

"Well, don't look at _me_ like that! It's Noel's damn fault in the first place." Fang put her hands up in front of her as though in surrender. "I'll wake him up later. Was that all?"

"Yeah, that was all."

"No way that took you two hours."

"It didn't take two hours."

"How do you know? Were you watching the clock when you got the tongue-lashing from Ballad?" Fang said. "Ah, dammit, if he really did give tongue-lashings, I'd get myself in trouble every day."

"Fang!" Claire exclaimed. She couldn't hold back her laughter.

"Sorry," Fang answered unapologetically. "Look, I'm gonna go wake up Noel so you can give him the guilt trip. Be right back."

"Okay," Claire said. She shook her head as she watched Fang disappear, wondering what on earth could make a person so scatterbrained. At least, she thought, Fang hadn't questioned her further. Had two hours really gone by while she walked with Caius and listened to his story? She shuddered as she imagined what the others would think if they knew she had been gone with him for all of those two hours.

_Caius,_ she thought to herself, testing it out silently. It felt like a secret, like something no one else knew. Something just between him and Claire.

She'd crossed a line, and she knew it.

"Claire! I've got Noel!" Fang shouted down the stairs, interrupting Claire's thoughts. Claire looked up to see her dragging a half-asleep Noel down the dormitory stairs. "Noel, don't you wanna hear what General Ballad said to Claire?"

"I don't give a damn," Noel muttered. "Why don't you let everyone else sleep, Fang? Honestly, whoever supplied you with caffeine is a fool." He rubbed his face with his hands.

"Are you sure you didn't wake up the rest of the squad, too?" Claire teased Fang.

"Come _on. _It's only… what… eleven-thirty? There's practically still daylight left," Fang answered, throwing up her hands.

"Yeah, and curfew was like an hour ago. What do you want?" Noel demanded.

"Well, Fang wanted me to tell you that… um… General Ballad knows you were in his office," Claire said.

Noel's eyes went wide. "_What?! _Does he have, like, security guards or something?"

"See, now you're awake," Fang said with a grin.

"He… did threaten to put us both in solitary," Claire added.

"God, I said I was sorry, didn't I?" Noel asked, burying his face in his hands again.

"I'm just telling you what he told me," Claire answered. This time she was unable to keep her smile from surfacing on her face.

"I'll never get back to sleep _now, _thanks to you, Fang," Noel complained. "I'll lie awake wondering if General Ballad is gonna show up in the middle of the night, wanting to get his revenge."

"So… can I leave now?" Claire asked Fang.

Her friend eyed her for a moment. "I guess so. But you can bet I'll have some things to talk to you about tomorrow after training. Good night," she called.

Claire sighed. "Good night, Fang," she answered as she trudged up the stairs toward her dorm room. She wondered briefly if Fang really intended to interrogate her about her night out with Caius. Her thoughts turned to Fang and Noel shortly thereafter while she glanced at them over her shoulder. She paused at the top of the stairs and watched them for a minute, but in the end she turned away.

_Fang has an all-consuming obsession with _General Ballad, _anyway, _she thought. _Whatever._

She crossed the hall to her dorm room, unlocked the door, and stepped inside, shutting it once again with a click. Alone, she lay down on her bed and stared at the ceiling.

Why had Caius—why had _General Ballad—_chosen her, of all soldiers? She'd talked back to him on the first day of training; she'd recognized that their first assignment was nothing but a lethal trick of the light. She'd stolen his headband and walked the wrong way to training on purpose.

And yet he'd still told her that he saw in her a capable soldier.

She didn't know what to think.

* * *

Training began at the usual time the next morning. Claire walked with Fang to the training area, taking the correct path on the way there this time. When she asked about Noel's whereabouts, Fang said he was probably still asleep.

"Why don't you wake him up?" Claire asked, shooting her a confused look.

"Why should I?" Fang asked. "I don't wanna be late to training."

"You didn't have a problem waking him up in the middle of the night last night," Claire pointed out.

"Oh, for God's sake, Claire, that was at eleven-thirty at night. How can you expect anyone to be rational at eleven-thirty at night?" Fang demanded.

"Whatever you say," Claire muttered.

"Anyway, I never finished asking you what happened. You really got interrogated by General Ballad for two hours?" Fang asked, changing the subject.

Claire pressed her lips together. "Well, no. He made me sit in his office for a while. Then he interrogated me."

"Really? Are you sure you didn't escape the complex, run around for a little while, and come back? Because that seems like a more likely story to me."

"Fang, if you hadn't noticed, General Ballad walked all the way back to the dormitory with me."

"What?!" Fang exclaimed, stopping in the middle of the pathway. "You're kidding me right now, right? Why would you _walk_ all that way with a man like that? How did you live through it?"

"He's not such an awful conversationalist," Claire pointed out.

"Not so awful," Fang mocked. "I don't think he's capable of talking about anything but punishment."

They entered the training area and split from each other, walking to their respective spots in the ranks. Claire stepped into her spot and stared at her boots for a minute before glancing up to see the black-clad man himself standing in front of the ranks, staring off into the distance. General Ballad. Caius.

As if sensing the pressure of her gaze, Caius turned to look at her. Their eyes met for a solid few seconds; Claire wanted to look away but somehow found she couldn't. She watched Caius's expression, wondering if there was some hidden message inside it, but she could only feel his eyes searching her, scanning every aspect of her face. She finally glanced away.

But as training dragged on, Claire found herself coming back to those eyes. They shone with a slightly lavender hue, and occasionally, when she looked to them, they flicked to hers. His expression no longer took on a derisive glare when he saw her.

She was tempted to return to his side to talk to him after training ended, but at that time he no longer cast a glance on her or anyone in the squad, and turned his back. Claire watched him, lost, for a moment, before she felt a hand clamp around her shoulder.

She flinched, and then cursed. "What—Fang, don't come out of nowhere like that," she admonished.

"Did I manage to scare the great Claire Farron? Is that what you're telling me?" Fang teased, nudging Claire in the side with her elbow.

"No, I—" Claire rolled her eyes at the sight of Fang's mocking expression. "Never mind. Let's just go."

Fang didn't budge. She stared off into the distance, where Caius was still disappearing around the corner. "Oh, no, Claire. Did you hear what he said to the back three rows of the squad just now? Don't even _look_ at him. That bastard deserves to die."

"What?" Claire asked, turning to stare at Fang.

"He basically told them their families weren't gonna miss them if somebody shot them," Fang exclaimed. "What kind of jackass says that? And anyway—Claire, you have a really strange look on your face."

"Whatever," Claire answered. "I don't really think he'd say that, Fang."

"He can say whatever the hell he wants, apparently."

"I thought you were obsessed with him for a while there," Claire remarked. "I'm glad we're done with that stage."

Fang glared at her. "You shut up. Okay, fine, I concede. We're going to the cafeteria."

The two of them walked in silence for a while. Claire lost herself in her thoughts again, contemplating what Fang had said. She hadn't heard Caius's comment to the other trainee soldiers, but she couldn't bring herself to be offended. That was what commanding officers did. Insult soldiers. Lock them in small, dark compartments.

But walking a soldier back to her dormitory and telling her about a painful past? That was something they didn't do.

* * *

Later that night, Caius called the squad back together. Most of them complained all the way back to the training grounds, upon which dusk had steadily begun to encroach. The darkness crept at the edges of the sky, blending in with Caius's shadow. He stood in front of the lines, his arms crossed and his feet planted firmly on the ground, as the soldiers filed in and took their places.

"Soldiers," he called out, once they had taken their places and stood at attention. "First of all, at ease."

The soldiers relaxed, returning to their normal postures, and Caius began to pace in front of the lines, the same way that he had during their first real day of training. Claire shivered at the memory. What could possibly bring them back to that place of fear and intimidation, at this time of day?

"I have an important announcement for all of you," he said, stopping somewhere to Claire's left, at the end of the row. "We must leave on our second assignment tomorrow morning." He held up a hand as if to silence any protests, but Claire couldn't hear any. "This assignment is classified as reconnaissance, which means that while there will be danger involved, this danger will be significantly less than the last assignment."

Claire heard someone behind her exhale in relief, but she couldn't copy for fear that Caius was lying to ease the minds of the trainees. Wasn't the danger always very real and very present, especially concerning the Pulsian forces?

"Make sure you are here, at the training grounds, early tomorrow morning. If you are not present, you will face… punishment." Claire thought she saw his mouth curve up at the edges when he spoke the final word, and she had to suppress another shiver.

_I don't think he's capable of talking about anything but punishment,_ Fang's voice said in her head again, as the memory of her time in solitary confinement flashed through her thoughts.

She still wasn't sure how the General Ballad who said _punishment_ with a smile on his face was the same as the Caius who had walked her back to her squad's dormitory last night.

"Now that all of that is cleared up," Caius continued, spreading his hands, "you are all dismissed. I will see you early tomorrow."

None of the trainees wasted any time getting out of there.

"Aaahhh… Great," Fang said as she and Claire and Noel started walking back to their dormitory. "So we've got another chance to run around and get ourselves killed before we're even done with training."

"Fang, this is just recon," Noel answered. "If you manage to get yourself killed on this mission, I will applaud you at your funeral, because that would take skill."

"Hey!" Fang protested, smacking him on the arm.

Claire shook her head, smiling. She tried to keep her mind on the conversation at hand, and not the upcoming assignment or the many masks of General Caius Ballad.


	7. Reconnaissance

**Oh god... I wrote this chapter so long ago. But it was actually so much fun to write. And I'm here now.**

**I'll never stop having to apologize for not updating... but I'll do it again anyway. Sorry guys. xP Thanks for your continued support, anyway!**

**i - Thank you again :D Actually, I definitely agree with what you said about not wasting time on Claire's comrades' reactions to her relationship with Caius, and I have to admit that's been an ongoing struggle for me while writing this, because I've tended to drift toward that for filler. But no, you're right, it's not really doing anything for the plot or the interactions between characters. But I will continue writing Fang and Noel as support characters! :D Again, thank you!**

**jollyp - Well... yes... Caius isn't always the most pleasant person... But I dunno about sadistic for this story xD**

**FantasyWriting - Thank you :D and I'll try to update more consistently if I can.**

**Anyway, yeah, I think that about covers it. See you guys in the next chapter. :D**

* * *

**Chapter Seven: Reconnaissance**

Claire woke up long before anyone else on the day of the assignment. She put on her uniform, listening to the silence that enveloped the dormitory. After a while, memories of past conversations began to fill the quiet in her mind, mostly the voice of General Ballad telling her how he had killed his own commanding officer.

_The other officers were reluctant to give me his position, but they realized they had no other choice._

"Be quiet," Claire said under her breath. Her voice echoed in the otherwise empty room. She didn't need the two different versions of General Caius Ballad occupying her head this morning. Not for this assignment.

She sat on her bed, staring out the tiny space she almost couldn't even call a window. When she finally heard the echo of voices in the hallway, she pulled on her boots and slipped out of her room. The dormitory's common area, she found, was empty and dark as it had been last night. She half expected to see someone standing in the shadows around her, lurking in the common room's half-light, but detected no motion and no figures. Turning away, she attributed the feeling to her nervousness about the morning's mission.

As she reached the door, she thought she heard footsteps behind her, and when she looked toward the sound, she saw Fang and Noel emerging from the darkness.

"Did you really think you were gonna just up and leave without us?" Fang demanded, though she was already grinning.

"Dammit, Fang," Claire sighed, collapsing back against the door. "You're like the Cheshire Cat. At six in the morning, too."

"You're just jealous of this smile," Fang answered.

"Let me guess," Claire said, turning to Noel. "You got woken up by Fang too, because she's just way too damn excited about this."

"What?" Noel asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

"Speaking of being too damn excited," Fang said, clapping her hands together, "let's get this show on the road. I'm ready. Are you two ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," Claire answered, rolling her eyes. She cast a glance over at Noel. "And I think this one's asleep on his feet."

"What was that?" Noel asked, trailing after them as they moved out of the dormitory.

Caius paced back and forth in front of the squad after they lined up on the training grounds. Naturally, they were short a few soldiers, and some of the officers had gone to track them down while Caius appeared to think of ways to punish them. Claire watched two of the officers run up to the front of the lines, salute their General, and shake their heads as they spoke to him in low tones. Caius nodded and dismissed them, facing his squad.

"It appears we have several soldiers who have decided not to show for this mission," he said. "When found, they will be disciplined for their actions. Failures such as these require much stricter punishments than just time in solitary. This, soldiers, is cowardice: a trait that will not help a soldier in any context."

Claire thought his eyes caught hers for a split second.

"However, I should think we are to continue without them, as we have no time to waste." He scanned the faces of the rest of the soldiers. "The transport vehicles at the gate will take us to the edge of Pulse territory, where we believe there is an underground base. Until now we have not been able to get close enough to investigate it. A select few of you may even be asked to infiltrate it, if we do find it. This, while still recon, is a very dangerous task."

This time, Claire had no doubt: he looked directly into her eyes. She felt her blood turn to ice as she realized what this meant for her. He saw her as a capable soldier, so he had no problem putting her in a situation like this.

"You will receive your weapons at the gates. Follow me." Caius turned and led the squad out of the training area. Struggling to stay in formation, the soldiers marched after him.

As they cleared the gates, officers stopped each of the soldiers and handed them their weapons, the same guns that they had received on their previous assignment. Claire cradled hers in her hands, half hoping she wouldn't need it.

Transport vehicles, looking not unlike the outdated pictures of tanks Claire had seen during classes, waited for the soldiers once they stepped outside the base. They boarded, single-file, and then spread out as they found their seats on board. Claire managed to find a seat next to Fang and Noel and slid into it, gripping her gun with one hand and the back of the seat in front of her with the other.

"Hope we don't have to go too far," Fang commented. "Otherwise I might have to use this on myself." She tapped her weapon and rolled her eyes.

"Fang!" Noel admonished.

"Looks like someone finally woke up," Fang said, jabbing him in the side with her elbow.

"For God's sake, Fang, dying by your own hand is worse than dying in battle," Noel pointed out.

A crackling sound issued from the vehicle's sound system, followed by a mechanical voice. "We will arrive at our destination in twenty-three minutes," it said.

Fang mimed pointing her weapon at her temple, and Noel slapped it away.

"Twenty-three minutes, you guys. Seriously? How far into Pulse territory are we going?" Fang demanded.

"Just to the western coast, a few miles past the border," a raw, deep, familiar voice answered, and a black-gloved hand dropped down onto the back of the seat right beside Claire's. She followed the hand up to the arm and shoulder to which it belonged, and finally her eyes found the face of the speaker. His lavender hair framed his face and fell over his shoulders. Naturally.

"General Ballad," Noel said, his arm coming into a salute across his chest. Fang and Claire copied the gesture, but Caius waved his hand, dismissing them.

"At ease," he stated. "In response to your question, we are only traveling as far as the base, which is on the edge of Pulse's territory. The transport vehicles will be nearby at all times, and only a few of you will travel into the base if we find it."

Claire resisted the urge to ask if that meant her.

"Be prepared," Caius continued when none of them said anything. "Though we should be protected from view at all times, the possibility of ambush still exists."

He walked past their seats, striding along the aisle, and vanished into the rows of other soldiers. Fang, Claire, and Noel stared at each other, wide-eyed.

"What the hell just happened?" Fang asked. "He just came out of freaking _nowhere._"

"Seems like something he's good at," Claire answered.

"Good thing you weren't saying anything worse when he showed up," Noel said, casting a pointed glance at Fang, who sent him a withering glare in response.

Several minutes later, the mechanical voice announced the end of their journey into the forbidden land of Pulse. Caius rushed to the front of the transport vehicle, running even though the row was hardly big enough for one person to pass through unscathed and even though their instructions for taking the transports had explicitly forbidden anything faster than a regular walk. He stood at the vehicle's door and watched the landscape pass by in a rectangular window hardly wider than a pencil.

Claire felt the vehicle slow to a stop. As soon as they stopped moving, Caius turned around and shouted, "Everyone out!" The trainees obeyed, moving single-file down the rows of seats and following him out of the transport. Claire descended the stairs and jumped down into the dust, where she stopped and stared at the area around her.

Their immediate surroundings were made almost entirely of dust: light, glittering dust, like sand, coating the ruins of buildings and the few plants that dared to sprout from the God-forsaken frontier that was Pulse's territory. Claire couldn't understand how anyone, anything could possibly live here.

"There's a _base_ somewhere around here?" she said under her breath.

"Yes," Caius responded, and she looked up sharply, once again slightly disturbed that he had been listening. "And we must find it."

Claire turned her eyes to the horizon again, wondering where on earth they could have possibly hidden a base, but Caius kept talking. "Claire, I task you with leading your comrades while I move on to the second group of soldiers. Use this location device and scout the area as well as you can. Alert us if you find anything."

"Y-yes, sir," Claire stammered, accepting the device from his gloved hand and securing it around her wrist. As Caius walked to the second transport vehicle, his dark armor receding toward the second transport vehicle, she switched on the device and opened the location service. It showed a gray area devoid of any sort of distinguishing characteristics, adorned with a large white question mark as though to indicate that the place had not yet been charted and added to the server. Of course it hadn't. Claire sighed. She had nothing to go on but the markings of the cardinal directions overlapping her terrible excuse for a map.

"Okay, everyone," she called out, facing the other members of her squad, including Noel and Fang. "Follow me."

And, picking a direction, she set off into the unknown.

No one questioned the sudden transfer of power. Fang and Noel, who stood toward the front of the group, had watched the brief exchange between Claire and their General, and even Fang didn't say anything. For the rest of the group, Claire supposed, her credibility was reinforced by her actions on the first day of training.

The landscape consisted mostly of dust, with the occasional hidden formation of rock or stone. Claire scanned the area, looking for traces of metal which might indicate a more recently built structure or irregularities in the terrain hinting at entrances into the earth. Everything they passed looked only like it belonged to a long-past era.

_Maybe that's the point,_ Claire thought. She squinted harder at the small outcroppings of rock and patterns in the sand, but still she saw nothing.

Until she spotted it.

Ahead of her she could see a dip in the layers of dust, marked by a deviation against the color scheme of faded gray stone and off-white dust that reflected what little pale light leaked from the skies above them. Red. Rust and paint the color of blood, barely bleached by the effects of the elements and hiding beneath a layer of dust. Next to the door she could see a metal panel awaiting a number pass code, not unlike the ones they used at the base back in Academia. Claire stopped and held out both her hands to force the squad behind her to a halt.

She lifted her location device to her mouth, changed the mode to communication, and spoke into it: "We've found it."

Caius's voice came back to them. "We are on our way."

Claire let her hand fall back to her side and took a deep breath. She had a bad feeling about this, even though she knew believing bad feelings could only be a trainee's mistake. A soldier couldn't trust her feelings. She could only trust her orders, and her training.

Minutes later, the other two-thirds of their squad appeared, one of them led by Caius and the other led by another trainee he'd appointed. Claire hardly dared to make eye contact with their General, but he turned in her direction when he spoke anyway.

"I will send four of you into this base," he stated. "Because you are trainees, I will not require that you go very far. Another squad is on its way in to take over for you, and when they arrive, I will give the order to pull out."

He gestured to Claire and the other temporary squad leader. "You two, since you both already have access to communication. I will be sending you and two others." Claire watched as he paced in front of them and chose two other soldiers whom she recognized but had never really spoken to. She felt a lurking dread at her core, having known he would choose her to do this job.

But she could only trust in the orders.

Caius descended to the place where the door lay hidden in the dust. His hand drifted over the keypad. "Kreiss," he called out. "Here."

Noel followed him and punched out a few number codes into the keypad. The display flashed before going dark, and Claire heard clearly the click of a lock releasing. Caius pushed the door open, testing it, and when it revealed a dark corridor beyond the frame, he beckoned the four of them forward. Noel stepped away from the door to allow them space to pass, and when Claire walked by him, he muttered, "Good luck."

"Thanks," she said back.

Caius fully opened the door for the four of them, holding out his hand to show them the way in. A smirk barely graced his face, almost as though—but Claire hardly dared to think it—it was a trap. Then again, it probably was. But not one Caius himself had created.

She refused to be caught in the jaws of Pulse.

The four soldiers stepped through the door to the base. Not ten feet from the entrance was a set of stairs leading downward, carrying them deeper into the darkness. As Claire descended them, she looked back and saw the rectangle of pale light that was the door growing smaller and smaller, along with the outline of Caius's polar silhouette, black against the light gray sky. He stood with his arm propping the door open, waiting, watching the trainees move ever farther into the lightless chasm.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, the light almost completely vanished. Only a few strips of the light-producing plastic often used in mines lit the corners of the ceiling. It barely cast enough light for them to see the path ahead.

In an unspoken agreement, two of the trainees went left, and Claire and the remaining one headed to the right. Her location device still showed a blur of gray and white pixels, and she kept it powered on only to use the glow from the screen to navigate in the dark. She ran ahead to take the lead.

Something didn't feel right. Even as she moved through the shadows, keeping her eyes ahead, Claire still felt as though she was being watched. She scanned the corners, the ceiling, the spaces where clouds of darkness floated like shrouds, but she saw no surveillance devices and no watching eyes.

Behind one corner, she thought she heard snatches of conversation, like whispers. She wondered if they were close enough to hear the other trainees speaking, but as much as she strained to hear the voices more closely, she couldn't detect more than the hisses of harder consonants.

She edged around the corner. Dim light from several electric bulbs revealed stashes of weapons against every wall: explosives to their left, firearms to their right, blades lined up against each door. The far door was locked by a keypad. Of course. Why hadn't they thought to take Noel along with them?

Bringing the device at her wrist closer to her mouth, she turned to address the other trainee, to say something about reporting back.

But only darkness answered.

Claire looked back and forth, switching her device to communication mode as her heart began to beat wildly in her chest. "General Ballad?" she said in a low half-whisper. Her attempt to hide her panic didn't work.

"Yes?" His voice returned to her through a fuzzy and broken signal. She opened her mouth to say something else into the microphone, but before she could, a hand clamped over her mouth. The other cuffed her wrists together, holding her there, preventing her from resisting.

"Those idiot Academia soldiers," a voice said, and before Claire's eyes, several other soldiers emerged, their faces unrecognizable, covered by masks. She knew without looking that they were from Pulse, however. Their voices cracked with the effects of breathing their polluted air; their hands were covered in metal gloves that bit into the soft skin of her wrists. Their weapons shone unnatural blue lasers at her face, probably made from the crystal they stole. From their land. From those unfortunate souls of legend who had turned to crystal long ago. "What do they think they're doin', sending in a bunch of trainees? And ones who couldn't even cover their tracks right."

"That keypad was practically screaming intruder from the second that kid touched it," another voice answered. "Christ, are they ever gonna learn?"

"Probably not," still another voice said. "Damn, man, if anyone stayed out there after the keypad got hacked, we're gonna be scraping them off the door for the next three days."

Claire thrashed against the hands that held her back, but it did no good. The soldier holding her shook his head and squeezed her hands tighter, cutting off the circulation. "No, no, no," he said. "We gotta get this one out of here. Can't have anyone knowing what's in this base."

"Right." The soldiers turned away from the room filled with weapons and dragged Claire with them. Claire realized, panicking, that her communication device was still powered on and set to send transmissions to Caius. She struggled again, trying to reach it, but she couldn't move her hands. The soldier holding her forced her forward. To her dismay, she heard Caius's voice come through the device.

"Claire, come in," it said.

She tried to speak again, to respond to him, but the soldier holding her took care of the device by smacking the display, hard, with one of his metal gloves. Claire squeezed her eyes shut as she heard the crack that meant his hand had connected with the screen. But she didn't have to endure the discomfort long: the soldier's next target was her head, and when his metal glove met her temple, she lost consciousness immediately and completely, like a light whose switch had been flipped to _off_.


	8. Under Control

**Ugh everyone I'm back. And I'm sorry I went AWOL again. I feel like a terrible person. I'm sorry I keep leaving you... But I can't promise not to do it again, because my spring semester of school is about to start and I might not have time to update for another few months... Anyway, with that said, I wanted to try to get one more chapter in before then, because I keep seeing all these reviews and they've managed to guilt me into posting. XD**

**So speaking of reviews, let me just address the reviews I've seen since I left. (You guys are great. Thank you for sticking with me.)**

**i - As usual, thank you for all that you wrote, and I have to agree with your suggestions for improvement. Now that I look back at it, the conversation between Fang and Noel and Claire _was_ pretty short. (It's reminded me to work some more on dialogue for the coming chapters!) Thank you again! :)**

**jollyp, Nina, and others whose names I don't know XD - This sounds weird, but thanks for bugging me over all these months. If you hadn't been there, I don't think I would have remembered to post...**

**Anyway, hopefully this chapter lives up to your expectations! And I also hope to be back soon...**

* * *

**Chapter Eight: Under Control**

Claire came to lying on her side in a cell. She was surrounded on four sides by walls, one of which was made of rusty metal bars. For all their high-tech bases and fortress-like buildings, Pulse hadn't even bothered to give her a secure cell. This cell looked like something General Ballad could snap in half with two fingers.

Then again, it wasn't likely she could actually make it out. Two soldiers paced the block constantly, passing by her cell nearly every minute. Even if she found a way out of the cell, it would be virtually impossible to sneak past them.

Unless, of course, she created a diversion.

Claire sat up and began to examine her cell. Gray stone made up the walls and floor, and a frayed, threadbare lavender blanket was spread out on in the back corner. Claire stared at it for a minute, thinking that the blanket and General Ballad's hair shared the same color.

Part of the wall ahead of her—the one composed of metal bars—had hinges and a lock and appeared to open out into the hallway. She highly doubted anyone would bother to open the door from the outside. Probably they only used it to throw prisoners in. Except…

She heard a flurry of voices somewhere in the distance and pressed against the cell bars, hoping to catch some of the conversation. One voice stood out, and as it echoed through the stone hallways of the cell, Claire strained to hear it. Its tone carried a commanding, no-nonsense air.

"…need them out now. They're…"

Claire fought down the surge of hope that soared in her chest. They couldn't possibly want her out already, could they? She returned to listening, to picking out stray words from the echo of the man's voice.

"…trial," he said.

A question framed by a voice quieter and less clear answered him.

"I'll give you ten," he snapped. "Bring them out."

"Fifteen."

"No. Ten." Footsteps. "The judge doesn't take well to waiting."

Judge. _Shit. _No way in hell would the Pulse government give anyone from their rival nation a fair trial. It was probably all for show, a dramatic farewell before their inevitable and, no doubt, brutal executions.

Down the hall from Claire, one of the cell doors opened, and she heard a muffled shout as the two guards dragged their prisoner from the cell. She needed some sort of plan, and fast.

She waited and listened to the next two doors opening, as well as the scraping and skittering noises that resulted from the prisoners' noncompliance. A few times she heard a shout of pain or the slap of metal against flesh. So the guards were armed, probably with some sort of blunt metal weapon like a gun, maybe a baton.

Finally a key clicked in the door to her cell, and she looked up to see the two guards standing just outside. One of them had a cut on his cheek just below his eye; Claire, naturally, did not let the fresh wound go unnoticed. If one of the other prisoners had managed to wound him, then of course she could too.

The guards stepped in and dragged her up by the arms. As soon as the one on her left procured a pair of handcuffs to snap around her wrists, she lashed out and hit him, knocking the cuffs from his hands. They went skittering to the floor.

"Hey!" the guard yelled, but he hesitated, unsure whether to pick up the handcuffs or go after her, so Claire punched him in the face. He stumbled back against the cell wall. The other guard reacted, one of his hands clamping around Claire's wrist. Claire pushed him against the wall and took a knee to his stomach. He doubled over, and as Claire backed up, the first guard came from behind her, his hands closing around her throat. She grabbed his arms, wrestling with him for a minute and fighting to breathe. She kicked backwards, but none of her kicks landed.

Faintly, she heard the second guard, who now lay on the ground, choking out some words into a radio. "Reinforcements…" he growled.

"No," Claire hissed. She felt like her face must be descending to some darker shade of purple; she gasped for air but never really got any. Desperately she moved, backing the guard up into the wall behind them, close enough to knock her head into his. He let out an exclamation of pain and let go, finally. She took a deep breath, remembering suddenly how necessary air was, and lunged at the first guard, smashing her elbow into his face and relishing the crack she heard as well as felt. Blood rushed down his face and he screamed, just before their reinforcements stormed the cell.

There were five of them total, and Claire knew she couldn't take them all on at once when they surrounded her and pinned her arms back behind her, securing the cuffs around them despite her struggle to get free.

A sixth member appeared at the door, and this one was not a man but a woman, with sleek, straight brown hair and glasses. She smiled cruelly at Claire and pretended to ponder her next words a moment before she stated, "No… I changed my mind. There won't be a trial for this one. Leave her here."

"What?" one of the guards exclaimed. "But—Your Honor—"

"Quiet," she commanded. "She'll go straight to the firing squad tomorrow morning. Court here is adjourned. _Leave her._"

The soldiers obeyed, shuffling out of the room after her. The two guards Claire had attacked looked pissed, but they pushed themselves up from the floor and followed their comrades.

One of them pulled the door shut with a click and spun the keys around his finger, all while looking Claire straight in the eye, as if making sure she knew she had no chance of escaping. She glared back at him until he disappeared into the hallway and around the corner.

No trial. _No trial._ Claire wondered which was worse: a trial that would probably end the same way no matter what, or no trial at all.

_She'll go straight to the firing squad tomorrow morning._

Claire clenched her fists. She would find her way to escape the firing squad if it meant having to _dig_ her way out of the cell. She refused to die at the hands of the Pulse military on a reconnaissance mission.

Especially, she recalled, because this was her second brush with death on one of their General's "training" missions.

_Maybe it's just because of his lack of experience,_ a voice in the back of her head said, reminding her of the story Caius had told her a few nights ago. _Maybe he doesn't know how to run training missions, how to keep trainee soldiers out of trouble._

As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she leaned her head back against the cell wall and sighed. She couldn't believe she was actually making excuses for General Caius Ballad.

She looked around the cell again, examining the walls for weak spots, checking under the pale lavender blanket for hidden tools, rattling the bars of the door to see if it would give. Of course, at this last step, one of the guards came around the corner with the keys in his hand. He stopped at her cell and planted a boot against the door, sending a jolt through Claire's hands. She backed up.

"Keep away from there," the guard snapped.

Claire swallowed and ducked her head. "H…help," she murmured.

"What was that?" the guard asked, taking a step closer.

"I'm…" Claire whispered. She let one hand close around the bars of the cell again.

The guard stepped closer again. "What? What is it?" he demanded. "Spit it out."

"Help me," she said in an even smaller voice. When the guard bent down to listen to her, she thrust a hand through the bars of the cell, making a grab for the ring of keys around his right wrist. But though she successfully closed her hand around them and jerked them from his hand, the ring got caught between the bars of the cell door, and the guard slapped her hand away, taking his keys back and standing up.

He spat at the ground in front of her cell. "You little bastard," he snapped before returning to the hallway and continuing to make his rounds.

Claire clenched her teeth, wondering what else she could possibly do. The other three soldiers were likely at their trials right now, and even if they came back alive tonight, the walls between them were solid stone, and the guards would never stop patrolling the cell block. Her last hope was to try to make an escape tomorrow morning, when her execution was scheduled.

She slid back on the dark stone floor and sat on the threadbare lavender blanket, leaning back against the wall and bringing her knees up to her chest. The cloth didn't feel like much of a change from the stone floor, and it reminded her of the headband General Ballad had worn on her first day of training. She closed her eyes and attempted sleep. After all, she'd probably need it for tomorrow.

Some time later she woke to the sound of boots colliding with the stone floor and cell doors opening. Her eyes flew open, and she scanned the hallway outside. From her vantage point, however, she could see little. Only the shadows, shuddering against the scarce light, and the noise gave her any indication that someone was there.

"Let me go!" a muffled voice said. It probably belonged to one of the soldiers General Ballad had sent to the base.

Another voice, this one clearer and closer, laughed in reply. "Soon you'll all be dead. None of you will be bringing back intel to your superiors."

Claire sat back against the wall, letting her shoulder blades crash into the stone, and exhaled. Of course all of their trials had been for show. Pulse hadn't intended to let any one of them go free.

"You _assholes,_" the voice of the trainee soldier snapped. This comment was followed by the sound of impact and a yelp of pain, in turn accompanied by the sound of the cell door closing again.

Claire expected to see the guards pass her cell, but instead she watched their shadows disappear down the hall. She wouldn't leave her cell until they came for her tomorrow morning.

* * *

The sound of the door squeaking on its hinges woke Claire several hours later. She'd slept, but very little. Time after time, the footsteps of the guards outside her cell had woken her, and she'd spent most of the night watching the shadows in the gloom.

"Time to go," one of the guards muttered, stepping into her cell and dragging her up by one arm. She didn't resist; if she did, they might throw her back and lock her in while they shot her fellow soldiers.

They walked in a single-file line down the hallway that led them out of the block, flanked on either side by guards. No one spoke.

The hallway led to a set of stairs that opened up to a large plane of concrete. Off to Claire's right, a large crowd stood, restrained by several more Pulsian soldiers. In front of them stood a line of soldiers with rifles—polished black, with attachments that made them look heavier than necessary. The officer from the day before stood in the center, the wind carrying her light brown hair over her shoulders. A satisfied smirk adorned her lips, similar to the one General Ballad wore when he threatened his soldiers during training to get what he wanted.

She waved a hand, and two of the guards dragged the first of their soldiers out into the open, before the Pulsian firing squad. But instead of giving the command to fire, the officer frowned and shook her head.

"No," she shouted, "bring me the first one. The one without a trial. I want her first."

Claire's eyes widened as they took her arms and dragged her out in front of the crowd. She tried to break free and managed to jerk her arm out of the grasp of the soldier on her right, but immediately he reclaimed his hold on her and shoved her in front of the Pulsian soldiers with rifles.

"Attention!"

Claire realized, suddenly and brutally, that one: she had only seconds left to live unless she escaped, and two: the chances of escape were very, very low.

"Ready, aim…"

The soldiers lowered their rifles, looking down the sights at her. The crowd went still, and the soldiers in front of her were motionless as well. This wasn't exactly what Claire had envisioned her last sight looking like.

The female officer in front drew breath to give the command. Claire saw motion out of the corner of her eye, and right in front of her, a figure moved through the crowd and cut down an entire row of guards. The guards fell to the ground, the crowd screamed and scattered; the female officer spun around and began shouting that they couldn't disturb an execution. Claire didn't dare move—the soldiers ahead of her still pointed their rifles at her.

She did, however, let her gaze fall on the action behind those soldiers. The female officer stopped mid-word as a sword pierced her abdomen, protruding from a spot just below her rib cage and sending her blood scattering over the pavement, an offering. She had no time to react. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she fell to the ground.

Her assailant jerked the sword out from her lifeless body and faced Claire.

"Good morning, Pulse," he said in a low, deadly voice.

Instantaneously, every member of the firing squad turned and trained their rifles on him. She heard the unison clicks of every weapon.

"Caius," she breathed.

"I suggest you let them go," he said.

"And I suggest you leave this place immediately, before we decide the date of _your_ execution, Ballad." One of the officers at Claire and the other soldiers' side stepped forward, addressing him. Claire suddenly felt a pang of fear, though she was quite sure she had wanted him dead a week ago.

Before Claire even had time to blink, General Ballad was in the other officer's face, and his sword was through the man's gut.

"Right," he snarled. "_My_ execution."

The officer gave him a last wide-eyed, open-mouthed look of surprise and terror before he slumped to the ground, dead.

"Let the prisoners go," General Ballad commanded, turning to the rest of the Pulsian soldiers who held them. When they didn't respond, he raised his voice. "I command you to let them go, or I will slit all of your throats!"

Unarmed, the officers had no choice but to obey. Claire breathed a sigh of relief as their hands slipped from her arms and they withdrew from her. The next second, General Ballad's hand replaced them, his gloved hand closing around her wrist. "Farron," he hissed in her ear. "Letting them deny you a trial—what in the hell did you do?"

"Tried to escape," Claire muttered, ducking her head.

"A foolish move," General Ballad snapped. "Do you not remember what I told you about defying authority, how it may kill you?"

Claire wrenched her hand out of his grasp. "If I choose to die escaping from the nation that has so long been our enemy rather than surrendering to death at the hands of its officers, then that is my own decision," she replied. "Which reminds me, thank you for nearly getting us all killed. How long did you stick around to watch? How long did you wait before you decided to actually step in? What kind of commanding officer _are _you?"

Glaring at her, he returned, "That is my business."

He turned and took the lead, and she followed. People scattered, running in all directions and stumbling over the bodies that now lay every which way on the pavement. Claire's eyes landed one more time on the brown-haired officer who had sentenced her to death before General Ballad shouted at her not to look back.

Ahead, she sensed a disturbance and realized that one of the soldiers was shouting for reinforcements, while more of them poured out of the door to the building where they had held the four of them from Academia. These soldiers were armed. Claire realized that she was not—she wouldn't stand a chance. But she refused to hide behind General Ballad and wait for—

She didn't realize that he had stopped walking until she nearly ran into him. His hand moved from his side, and Claire felt cold metal press into her abdomen. She looked down and identified the cold, dark shape of a gun in his hand. Looking up at him, she accepted the weapon.

"What about the others?" she asked. There was no way he'd brought enough for all four of them.

"Protect them," General Ballad replied, not looking at her.

He took the lead and set off at a run again.


End file.
